During my ‘assessment’ I learned my BMI and my body fat %…no, I won’t be sharing those numbers with anyone.

All I could think about was how I was doing things, everything wrong. Including my eating.

Trainer guy wants a food diary. During the first week I found out that my so called healthy eating wasn’t so healthy.

I am trying to put my mindset in calorie counting to my mindset in dollar budgeting. For some reason I am killer at one and sucky at the other.

How can that be?! I can count, I can add.. But calories aren’t the same as dollars.

So here’s my attempt at accountability, MyNetDiary – the iPhone app literally spells it out. “Literally”. Every sugar gram I’m not supposed to eat, and let’s not talk sodium.

I can manage the calorie amount just fine, it’s the micro numbers in there that I am struggling with. I was so focused on the calories, that I wasn’t paying attention to the sugar and carb counts… (apparently that’s important).

So, maybe you are the opposite of me… You are killer at workouts and carb counting but are struggling with the budget thing.

It’s all about finding your accountability tool. We need to see what we are doing. I have to see it daily. Writing things down, no matter how bad it is, holds me accountable. Do I eat that low-fat ice cream at night or opt for a glass of skim milk?

I’m still figuring it out and struggling. But regardless if it’s dollars or calories, we can count them together.

I can’t tell you how many times I have heard the question “how much does that cost” during the last two weeks. If I had a dollar for every time I could probably quit too.

Before the how much does it cost was the – “are you sure?”

Apparently even being married to Sassycents doesn’t give one a sense of security. 

I must admit after answering these questions several times I started to get annoyed. Yes, I was sure. We discussed it.  And yes I even knew when he gave his notice and gave my blessing. I had no fear.

No second thoughts. 

The point is, we have been planning for this for a while. He had a choice to make. He couldn’t work two full time jobs. So how could he make the leap without Sassy going into a coronary?  

Plan and Budget. 

We had a budget meeting and figured out the bills. ALL of them monthly, non-monthly everything we could think of.  Then we talked about how much time he felt he needed to get things going. This is important. Give yourself time. 

Then we stashed the cash baby!

So after all of this planning, budgeting and cash stashing – yes I was sure.

Now to the next phase – the ‘cost of things’.

I run a pretty tight ship. I know pretty much what we spend week to week and month to month. I know if we have some extra wiggle room so to speak.  I will admit our budget meetings have fallen by the wayside. I just take care of things. If a major decision hits, we meet.

The first major grocery shopping trip after the new job venture also included some clothes and shoes for the teen. 

The teen loves to come home and announce we spent $xxxxx and try to get a reaction. I’m not flinching, I was there. The other half froze and said ‘can we afford that’? How much did that cost?! Followed by ‘I need to go work some to pay for this’. 

Now I have to say, we have had some shopping trips like this in the past, so where were these questions then?  

Again, it all lies in the planning and the budget. 

After much consoling and assurance we had money in the bank we decided that more frequent budget meetings might be in order.

Where I see nothing on my side changing, obviously he is a teensy bit more stressed. 

Of course, I haven’t told him I want to redo the landscaping, join the gym and get a personal trainer…

If you haven’t already done your taxes you certainly don’t need me beating you up about it. Well, maybe you do but I’m not gonna do it.

What I am going to talk about is our anniversary and how to celebrate without breaking the bank and the Sassy budget.

Y’all know I believe in putting money aside each month for the things that aren’t regular monthly bills. Obviously, our anniversary is one of those things.

We don’t usually blow it out big, but we like to eat at a nice place where someone else cooks and stay somewhere that isn’t Casa Sassy.

This year, given recent events that we are still working through, we decided to play it low key.

Honestly, if I was in the very nice ‘I-Prefer’ hotel with 1000 count sheets and had to leave and head three blocks east for the plastic couch – i’d be slightly disappointed.

The teen comes first of course, so we are putting the dream bed on hold.

Instead we had what most would call ‘a bor-ing’ celebration.

I believe in keeping a stocked pantry. I keep thinks like crackers, olives, olives, did I mention olives? Cheeses, hummus, raw vegetables and fruit can be found laying around too.

There is always wine, beer and a couple weeks ago we bought a couple of bottles of bubbles.

I stopped at the local bakery and bought a cool baguette with a name I don’t know how to spell or pronounce. Suffice it to say it was made with red wine and summer sausage.

With the things I had on hand, fruit, raw vegetables, olives, the baguette and a bottle of champagne I threw together (literally) an antipasti plate, lit a candle and wa-la. A cheap date! Um, I mean an inexpensive celebration.

We’ve all done it. We’ve gotten that glazed look in our eye and lost all sense of reason. We’ve gone a spending spree and not even realized what we’ve done until the damage was massive and very nasty.

Hi, my name is Sassy and I too had a bender this week.

I blame the husband. I do. I’m not ashamed to say it. He went to a conference in Orlando. He said “go online and look at pins to let me know what to buy”.

“Pins” refers to the racket Disney has created on pin trading. You buy a starter pack of 4 to 6 pins a cute lanyard and trade for something you like better. Of course this is a one for one trade and there are SO MANY! So, you must buy more to trade. Its like Lay’s chips, you cant buy just one…..trust me, you can’t.

Since our vacation to said magical kingdom, we have become a trading pin family. Granted we pale in comparison to most, but we have spent our fair share on the “pins”.

I should know by now, four years later, that this is coming. Still it gets me every time.

eBay has become this pin traders haven. You can find just about anything on there and at varying costs. If you lack discipline, that can be bad….very bad.

The sad part is this is supposed to be for the tween.

This week I got the call. ‘go look at pins’. We did. And the feeding frenzy began.

Her favorite is Tinker Bell. So of course we mess around on an ‘official site’ for a few minutes then i take control of the situation and take us to ebay. *sigh* The girl didn’t stand a chance. I took the computer from her and within 5 minutes I bid on a set and had 20 some odd I was “watching”.

I have consistently had my iPad at work the last three days to watch, search and bid to stay off the work radar.

As we speak there is an auction ending in an hour and I MUST HAVE THE PIN.

I do realize the spiral I am in. I have made myself pare the list down. I rationalize with myself that there are the couple of must haves that will be ‘investments for the tween’ as gifts for birthday and Christams.

Back to reality-

Now, how am I going to recover my discipline and most importantly my budget?

I think the fact I knew I had a few extra dollars helped fed my frenzy. That being said, I have some extra dollars put away for one of those non-monthly bills that I no longer need. I plan to use that money to cover myself.

Then, I’m going back and re-reading a couple of my blogs, lock up the iPad for a few days and wait.

Spring has essentially sprung where I live and that mean things are blooming, especially the pollen.
Pollen sucks for those of us with allergies but the flowers and plants are worth it.

I love flowers. All chicks love flowers, at least the ones I know, but the cost of them will destroy even the best Sassy budget.

I gave the husband reprieve on sending me flowers. Bouquets of flowers are outrageous to begin with. Add on tax and shipping / handling fees and then stroke out when you see the bill.

The Sassy solution? Plant a flower.

Head to your local Lowes, Home Depot, Co-Op, farmers market, seed catalog and buy a plant. Guys, here’s a chance to score some major points with the significant other.

Spending a few dollars on a plant will reap many more in return.

Reward # 1 – your yard or patio will look fantastic!

Reward # 2 – pants last longer than a delivered or purchased bouquet.

Reward #3 – you can purchase plants and flowers that will return year after year.

Reward #4 – you save major cha-ching!!!

All of that for a potential spend of $5. Think of what you can do to your yard if you spent the $80 it would cost you on a delivered bouquet.

There are other benefits as well. They say looking at fish can help your blood pressure. I don’t know about that, but I know looking at my flower garden brings a smile to my face. I enjoy the anticipation of the blooms.

I enjoy the ability of cutting flowers for mere pennies to have in my home ‘just because’ at any given time.

Guys- here is your part – you get in the dog house – just run outside and snip a few blooms…. Problem solved. You might even score points buying some plants for the garden.

Also if I kill something because of my black thumb, it was only a couple of bucks and I can try again.I did that with fresh herbs. I’m trying again this year. Have you priced those things in the store?

Save yourself some cash and get a little fresh air. Go plant a flower.

__________

Poor Planner? Financial Flunky? Try Improvising Your Way to Saving
With Tammy still, sadly, working her way through one of life’s “Oh crap!” moments, she’s turned over the Sassy Cents pulpit to one of her biggest believers and a regular reader – yours truly. Which may lead you to ask, what do I, pinch-hitting blogger know about savvy budgeting? Truthfully, not much…so rather than lie to you or put forth great sounding, but completely misinformed budgeting advice, I thought it more appropriate to stick to my strengths – improvisation.

If you’re a parent you probably already know a thing or two about improvisation. As a mom and a small business owner I find myself frequently pulling stuff out of my…um…hat. Lately my financial improv abilities have been taxed to their max by a series of project management snafus that ate into my profit margins at work, an all too regular attack of accessory envy (shoes & handbags are my drug of choice), a little something called ‘the holidays’, clients that are taking f-o-r-e-v-e-r to pay up, AND way more than my fair share of unplanned expenses. Without savings to fall back on, my story could’ve have ended up a cautionary tale were it not for were it not for the fact that I’m a sassy cents work in progress. So rather than max out another credit card or drain my retirement savings account (which I know Sassy would NOT approve of), I improvised by doing more with less and engaging in more money-shuffling, bartering, begging and bargaining than any semi-financially responsible gal could’ve imagined.

Following are my big three improvised money savings solutions – tales from the trenches of my own 2012 financial apocalypse. I hope they’ll give you a few more ideas for pulling some savings out of your own…um…hat.

1. “The ________ (insert name of ungodly expensive item) is on the fritz!”

When our kitchen sink became clogged AND our A/C died in the same, awful week (you know – the week between paychecks)…, I pulled out my old Angie’s List login and did some comparison shopping. If you haven’t already used it, Angie’s List is a subscription-based review website that helps consumers comparison shop local service providers.

In our case, three days of husbandly attempts at unclogging the kitchen sink were followed by a handful of phone calls where we politely ‘informed’ each plumber of the others’ new client promotions and…viola! We were able to find a great, highly rated plumber who spent three hours doggedly pursuing the clog from hell all for a total of $80. To put this into context, before we started phone negotiations, the weekend service call alone was going to be $150 + $50 per hour which would have come out to a staggering $450.
Negotiation Savings = At least $70 – ca-ching!

2. “Oh $%^&! The ______ (very expensive thing) was crushed by the ______ (other very expensive thing) in a freak accident!”

So, the week before my kitchen sink and A/C both went on strike, our ceiling-mounted center speaker in the family room decided to plunge from the mounting bracket it has called home for the past 8 years and take our brand new 55” LCD TV out no its way down. Now, I know almost nothing about electronic devices but I do know that dropping heavy things on them and then watching them fall to the floor is bad.

Thankfully the speaker was fine, but the brand new (but just out of warranty) 55” LCD TV was not. I would’ve pulled out my trusty Angie’s List login for this situation had it not been for the fact that my husband is much better with electronics than he is with kitchen sinks. So after we carefully laid the TV on its face and bravely removed the few screws holding the backing in place, we examined the innards with a flashlight and quickly spotted the problem. The control board where the power cable enters the rear of the TV had a small crack in it – no doubt from tension between the cable and the wall outlet as it fell forward from the TV stand. Being that we didn’t have a spare $1200 lying around for a new TV, we opted to search online for the serial number printed on the broken board. Guess what? eBay had an absolute ton of spare TV parts out there – even for our nearly new TV. We found dozens of boards for our TV selling from $50 – $150.

Getting out of this freak accident for $150 would’ve been pretty awesome, but thankfully this story has an even better ending. Observing that the crack in our current board was fairly minor, my husband came up with the brilliant idea to call around to a few computer repair places and hobby shops. We eventually found an electronics hobbyist with a soldering iron who offered to repair our existing board’s hairline fracture for just $15.

So let’s do the math here: We went from thinking that we needed to spend $1200 for a new TV, to being thrilled to spend $150 for a replacement part, and ended up at the ultimate bargain price of $15. Pretty sassy if I do say so myself!

A combo of do-it-yourself gumption mixed with consumer electronics savvy = $1185 savings – ca-ching!

3. “Honey, can you give me a lift to work. I have a flat tire!”

In the strange world of automotive math somehow ONE flat tire always ends up equaling the cost of TWO new tires. For those of us who simply want to drive ourselves to and from work, we really don’t have the luxury to be picky about tires. Most everyone I know ends up towing their wounded vehicle to the shop and forking over full retail for new tires.
But here’s the thing – you don’t necessarily HAVE to buy new tires in every case. Some types of tire leaks, if the damage isn’t too bad or the tire structure isn’t too compromised, can be patched. While that wasn’t the case for us this time, in the past we’ve saved hundreds of dollars by simply asking for a patch job or getting a second opinion from a competitor.
For us the cheapest price for replacing two tires was through a service called Tirerack.com. With Tirerack, you can choose from a huge assortment of tires – not just the limited selection your local tire store stocks. This meant that we had a much larger selection of tires to choose from AND we weren’t looking at retail mark-up. Once we made our Tirerack purchase, they shipped our tires, overnight to our local tire shop. The next afternoon, the tire shop received our order, put on the new tires, balanced them, etc. and we drove off into the sunset.
Best case scenario, a tire patch will run you $20-30. But If you must replace some tires, give Tirerack a try. They were able to beat our cheapest local price by $200 AND we ended up with name brand tires in less time than if we’d ordered them through the tire store.
Carpooling for a few days while we shopped online = $200 savings – ca-ching!

If my math is right, that means we saved, at a minimum, $1455 over a three week period full of one ‘oh crap’ moment after another, just by:
* Not panicking
* Doing some comparison shopping
* Refusing to settle for the first/worst price
* Ditching brick & mortar for online
Not bad for a sassy cents beginner!
________
Trina Rimmer is a writer, designer, and mom living in Florida with her non-plumber husband, two kids, and two dog assistants. When she’s not wrangling children or brokering bargains, you’ll find her writing about instructional design and other geeky training stuff on her blog – trinarimmer.com.

I don’t want to beat the proverbial dead horse, but I feel I must convey to all of you the importance of getting your financial house in order.

If you are on a budget and following it, then when life throws you the curve ball – you will be ready.

I explained the ‘oh crap’ factor a couple of weeks ago. People, we are still living it four weeks later. You have no idea when an emergency is going to rise up and bite a big fat nasty chunk into you.

Be prepared. At least be financially prepared.

I am writing this sitting in the hospital. We are waiting on the THIRD surgery/procedure for my daughter in four weeks.

I can do nothing but laugh at this point thinking about the cha-ching racking up as we speak.

The last thing I want to worry about is if or how I’m going to pay for this and we still have one more scheduled surgery to go.

My daughter needs my attention, my full attention. I can’t give her that if I’m stressing over the money part of this. She needs to have me strong and supporting her during this time with all these things happening to her.

By having my budget in place I know what I’m in for. Bring it! Am I writing them a check for the whole enchilada at one time? Um, no. But I know I have the ability to pay it and I can focus on the most important thing which is my kid.

‘AND’ having an emergency fund helps gives me that peace of mind!

Get on your budget and work it- live it- breathe it. You won’t be perfect all the time, I’m not! But by my telling my money what to do I have the control. I also know when crap happens its not the end of the world.

As I talked about before, know your your insurance plan. Know it inside and out. Once you demystify the mysterious it’s no longer a weight looming over you. You are in control.

A nice lady from the hospital business office called me the other day to make ‘arrangements’. Guess what, she had me owing twice what my insurance company said I did, which is more than my catastrophic cap. So I knew it was wrong.

She kept insisting this was the amount I owed. The conversation ended with the nice lady saying she would call my insurance company.

Don’t blindly take someone’s word for what you owe. ‘Know’ what you owe.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions or tell someone they are wrong.

If you are going to freak out, freak out over the things out of your control. Your budget is not one of those things..

Usually by now I have everything for our tax returns ready to go only waiting on our w2′s to arrive.

Yes, it’s January not April 15th.  Yes, I’m behind. Most of you are saying I’m crazy. I’m not.

Just like your budget, it’s all about the planning.

How many of you are burning the midnight oil on April 14th? You’re stressed, cussing – swearing you won’t wait until the last minute next year yet there you are. Some of you may even file an extension.

You can’t find a receipt you need for the clothes you donated. Do you really need a copy of the check where you paid for that donation??

With a little planning even tax time can be, dare I say … enjoyable?

Now I can really hear you out there screaming…Don’t give up on me yet.

Given our particular situation, a couple years ago I finally told the husband I needed an accountant. Between his business and our albatross of a rental house, I needed a professional for a sanity check.

I needed to make sure that 1) everything was correct, and 2) we were getting all we were due. I don’t mind giving my money away to a good cause but the govt isn’t one of them.

A good referral resulted in a great accountant. We’ve been together 3 years now.

The “Plan” – I keep an electronic checklist of everything I will need for our taxes. As we go through the year I make notes on it. If I make a donation to a non-profit I note it along with the check number. Later I go back and print that out. If I make an online donation, I print the receipt I receive in email then file them in a folder in my email.

I have a specific drawer in my desk that is for these receipts only. Since my husband has an office in the home, I keep up with the all the utilities at the time I pay them so I am not scrambling at the end of the year going back looking to see what I paid each month. The same goes with expenses for that albatross of a rental house – every stinking dime on that thing counts and believe me, I’m counting it!

Buy an accordion folder or a manila envelope to store your receipts throughout the year. If you want to be real adventurous and throw caution to the wind, have separate small envelopes labeled to keep inside the folder so your receipts are already sorted.

The next thing you know you won’t be able to wait for tax time to roll around!! What? No way!! Ok, maybe I got a little over zealous…. but it will be better.

The last two weeks have been ……’rough’. What started out with a trip to the pediatrician that turned much more serious very quickly. My daughter was diagnosed with a UTI, given a shot in the booty, a couple of prescriptions and we left.

Fast forward past the pharmacy to the house and she starts to mimic the Exorcist in my kitchen. Nice. There are some thing s I just don’t do and vomit is one of them. On cue the phone rings and it’s the doctor asking how things are going. How do you think its going?? She tells me to pack it up and I get to spend the evening in the hospital ER.

Nice. I did remember to ask her to call ahead for a reservation.

Those of you who are parents know where this is going. I would rather eat a worm than spend five minutes in the ER. It doesn’t matter that the doctor called ahead, it’s still first come first served. However, Lauren did manage another Exorcism in the triage room and I think that moved us ahead in the line.

It was decided she would be admitted overnight for ‘observation’, and given antibiotics by IV. She was having significant pain so there would be ‘tests’ the next morning. Those consisted of an ultrasound and a CT scan. Then I’m being told they thought there was a blockage but couldn’t tell what. So that meant surgery. We were there for a week.

So let’s recap, within a twelve hour span of time we had gone from the pediatrician’s office – pharmacy – home – ER – admitted – tests – surgery with a week stay. That’s more going on than even Walt Disney can do. This my friends is the ‘oh crap’ factor.

So was I prepared? Um, no – not emotionally. Are you kidding??!! Financially, yes. Being financially prepared for the ‘oh crap’ moments let’s you handle them much better. The last thing going through my mind was how am I going to pay for this.

I understand that insurance and health care are hot button topics right now. Jus t as we must take our budget by the horns we must take the same initiative on our healthcare.

Prepare yourself. Understand your insurance program. What is/isn’t covered? What is your deductible? If it is written in Greek, contact your HR representative. Become a leech on their leg until they explain it to you. My guy knows me by name when we pass in the hall.

Put a line item in your budget to put a little extra away to help cover the bills. Most places will work out arrangements with you to pay over time.

Know the difference about in-network and out-of-network. However, this week I didn’t care. The doctor we saw I would have paid full price for out of my own pocket.

Study your statements when they come. Don’t let them jerk you around. Make them explain it you. Most insurance companies and the insurance departments are actually willing to explain it to you if you want to listen. It’s their job.

Don’t forget about your emergency fund people. That’s what it’s there for. Can I tell you the number of trips back and forth to the hospital that my husband made which means extra gas? Let’s add up the trips to McDonalds for pancakes and strawberry smoothies to bribe my daughter to eat something, the countless bottles of water and cups of coffee and dinner to save us from the cafeteria food. All of this adds up. Fortunately they validate parking.

I’m not going to tell you how much they charge for flowers people. I already have a future post in mind for that one.

What I’m trying to get across to you is at any time ‘oh crap’ can be uttered from your lips just like they were from mine. Some things are out of our control, can’t help you with that. What I can do you is help you be prepared with the things you can.

I realize that not all of my readers are cut from the same cloth. That’s what makes this great. So whether you celebrate Kwanza, Christmas, Chanukah, Boxing Day, Kiss-the-In-Laws-Day, guess what? It all comes at the same time of year. Same time – every year…

So guess what else? Now you are going to plan for it.

I do not want to know how much you spent this last couple of months. Don’t tell me about Black Friday or Cyber Monday. We have already talked about the word ‘SALE’ and the fact that it can be a four letter word if not handled properly.

Every year we all say the same thing ‘I’m not going to overspend this year.’ And guess what, most of us do. Then January comes and we hate to open the credit card statement.

Along with all those resolutions you are making to get back in the gym and get back on your diet. There should be a resolution to get back on your budget. Just like you need to tighten your literal belt you need to tighten your budget belt.

When did you sit down and look at your bills last? Holidays are the worst time to ‘let go’ not just with eating but with spending.

One line item you need to add to your budget is a ‘holiday’ budget line item. Sit down and make a list of the people you buy presents for. Now, look at your budget realistically. How much can you afford to put away each month in a savings account or holiday club account and NOT TOUCH?

If you have the ability to bank with a credit union, they have these and they are wonderful. They even penalize you if you take your money out early. If you can’t join a credit union, open a savings account, put the money in there and LEAVE IT ALONE.

Then make the resolution to live within that amount when the holiday’s come around. And look…it’s in cash. No credit cards to run up. No worries after it’s all over on how to pay it off. Cash, cash glorious cash. Did I mention it was cash?

What if my list is longer than money you ask? Then it’s time to get real about some things. I know this is going to sound hard but it is truth time and that’s what Sassy is here for.

1) It’s time to live within our means. A budget is a budget is a budget. There is only so much coming in so only so much can go out. You can’t live by credit card.

2) Get creative. Can you sew or knit? Can you bake? One year I made baskets of cookies, brownies and pumpkin bread. You get the idea. You can find baking stuff on the cheap at Aldi. Or you can get the store brand cheap at your local grocer. Having a #PLAN and #THINKING AHEAD will allow you time to knit or sew some things throughout the year.

3) Maybe it’s time to really evaluate the list. If your family is fairly big, discuss the option of drawing names, maybe secret santa-like. In this economy you never know, your other family members may be just as relieved you made the offer.

Your holiday time can still be special. Just plan a little and it won’t put you in the poor house.